Madeleine Sumption, director of the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford, said the “more restrictive” policy means it should “in theory significantly reduce EU immigration in the coming years”.

But she added that migration levels are “notoriously difficult to predict”.

The number of refugees granted asylum in the last year has also increased, now at its highest level since 2003.

Humanitarian protection, such as asylum, was granted to 20,703 people in the year to December, up 30 per cent on the previous year

Andy Hewett, from the Refugee Council, welcomed news that more people were being granted asylum but criticised the length of time it takes for applicants to find out their fate.

He said: “It is unacceptable that in modern Britain so many human beings are being forced to survive with such a basic lack of dignity.”